all the companies in their liveries, chains of gold, and banners; lords and nobles clad in cloth of silver, gold and velvet; the windowes and balconies all set with ladies; trumpets, music, myriads of people flocking, even so far as from Rochester, so as they were seven houres in passing the citty, even from 2 in the afternoon, till 9 at night.

"I stood in the Strand and beheld it, and bless'd God. All this was don without one drop of blood shed, and by that very army which rebell'd against him: but it was ye Lord's doing, for such a restauration was never mention'd in any history, ancient or modern, since the returne of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity; nor so joyfull a day and so bright ever seene in this nation, this hapning when to expect or effect it was past all human policy."

I love to describe in the very words of an eyewitness, a spectacle, which was re-produced in France with the same details in 1814.

After the return of the Stuarts, Sir Richard Brown rejoined his son-in-law. Evelyn appeared at court, and was better received than the worthy Peveril of the Peak. It is true that Evelyn's selflove was less exorbitant than that of the poor knight of Maultrassie Hall. He did not demand a peerage, and Charles gave him an appointment, which flattered his benevolent disposition: viz. the inspection of the hospitals. In this office, Evelyn displayed the magnanimous courage of a true citizen, in braving the dangers of a contagious disorder. At a later period, the famous fire

of London occurred, which he has described in his journal with great simplicity, and yet with poetical effect. The manner in which he proposed to rebuild the city, coincided in many respects with the plan of Sir Christopher Wren. Always the friend of the unfortunate, Evelyn's virtues preserved for him the king's esteem, while he continued the friend of statesmen who were disgraced. He loved Charles, but lamented his misconduct.

The day after the death of that Prince, Evelyn noted down the following remarks in his diary:

"I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and prophanenesse, gaming and all dissoluteness, and as it were total forgetfulnesse of God, (it being Sunday evening) which this day sen'night I was witnesse of, the king sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, &c. a French boy singing love songs, in that glorious gallery, whilst above twenty of the greate courtiers and other dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least two thousand pounds in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with me made reflections with astonishment. Six days after was all in the dust!"

The conduct of James completed the ruin of the Stuarts in the opinion of the English nation. The revolution of William and of Mary, the Servilia of modern times, brought with it mortifications for Evelyn, and he retired altogether from the court.

He also left Deptford for Wotton, the

place of his birth, where, in a peaceful and healthy old age, he employed himself in taking care of those trees, the rearing of which had been his amusement amidst political tempests.

Evelyn was not merely the modest gentleman farmer of his age, the charitable philosopher, the virtuous courtier, the kind husband, who while he educates his children, embellishes his estate and amuses his leisure by study, does some good to his friends, and dying is forgotten,-Evelyn was the author of the Sylva; and if England should ever erect a temple to her maritime glory, the statue of Evelyn ought to have a place therein.

"While Britain," says d'Israeli, "retains her awful situations among the nations of Europe, the Sylva of Evelyn will endure with her triumphant oaks. *

It was an author in his studious retreat, who casting a prophetic eye on the age we live in, secured the late victories of our naval sovereignty. Inquire at the Admiralty how the fleets of Nelson have been constructed? and they can tell you that it was with the oaks which the genius of Evelyn planted."

To speak only of Evelyn's influence on the English landscape, it may be observed that, thanks to him, England not only saw young plants replace the ancient oaks, which the political levellers had proscribed as a kind of vegetable aristocracy; but those trees issuing from dock-yards to circumnavigate the globe, have brought back to the climate, which gave them birth, a rich variety of

foreign plants, whose variegated tints now mingle with the foliage of the shoots those oaks left behind them. The blending of different shades, and the contrast of forms, produced by the union of indigenous plants with exotics, do not embellish the gardens of Kew alone. These precious vegetable productions are also to be seen in most of the pleasure grounds of England, and attest the enterprising spirit of her mariners.

There is little artifice of style in Evelyn's work, the agriculturist appears in every page, but the writer does not display himself. He is interesting, however, in consequence of the love which he shows to his trees, whose education appeared to him a patriotic duty. He addressed himself to a corrupt generation, who required to be regenerated in the mild pursuits of cultivation, and far from the pestilential atmosphere of the court. It was an important object to withdraw men of fortune from the fatal seductions of voluptuousness and debauchery. We need in France an eloquent voice to give warning against the no less fatal seductions of stock-jobbing, which are so fatal to the fortunes and the health of both high and low.

I WOULD have written to you on the day after my arrival, had I not been afraid to infect you through my letter with all the dulness, which I experienced on my first day's residence in London. If an English Sunday is a sadness to every one, it must be particularly so to the traveller, who on that day awakens for the first time amidst the immense labyrinth of the streets of the British capital. It was rainy weather; but, notwithstanding, I did not think it necessary to confine myself to the contracted apartment I had got at an hotel; and I flattered myself with the idea of going as it were in disguise to find out the public buildings, and to form a judgment of them, free from the illusion of those recollections, with which a known public monument is always embellished.

After seeing the same objects in the way they are generally seen, that is to say by consulting the Foreigner's Directory, or accompanied by an obliging guide, you can speak more decidedly, and on comparing first with second impressions, you may expect to be more impartial.

I looked in vain for something picturesque in the thick atmosphere of London, the want of which Sir Walter Scott regretted in Paris. I have